


"Like this is the worst thing I've done."

by TwoCatsTailoring



Series: Sound/Fury [19]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Established Relationship, F/M, Fictober 2018, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2021-01-23 20:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21326320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: Accidental Baby Acquisition. That's all you need to know.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Iron Bull, Iron Bull/Female Trevelyan
Series: Sound/Fury [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534262
Kudos: 42
Collections: Short Things from TwoCatsTailoring





	"Like this is the worst thing I've done."

It’s Skinner who finds the little guy. Not making a sound, hidden in his basket between the wall and the bed while his parents lay on the floor nearby, both Vashoth and very dead from the marauding bandits displaced by the upheaval in the Dales.

It was clear the family had carved a good life: a plot of land, subsistence farming but able to hunt and sell the excess. Not much, but enough security to give their son clean linens, a full belly, and a few toys.

Not much for bandits to take, but desperate men did desperate things for basic supplies and a handful of gold.

Skinner didn’t consider how they’d missed him. Children, small ones, in particular, were not even a tertiary interest for her. She might have found him, but it was Rocky who picked him up.

And Grim who managed to quiet his crying when he woke up among strangers. And The Iron Bull who the chunk of baby Qunari latched on to as the most familiar face.

By the time they made it back to Kirkwall, Bull was smitten with the boy. They figured he was about a year old, judging by his size, attempts at walking, and near-constant gnawing on things.

And the former Inquisitor, now more commonly called the Comtesse by those who knew what was good for them, barely batted a lash at the toddling, drooling, chewing addition. She dropped to the floor and let him come to her, more amused by him than anything. Smiling and cooing over him, tickling his chubby cheeks while Bull told the story of stone dead parents and a house miles from nowhere.

“What’s his name?” Echo asked as the boy patted and pulled at her hair. She distracted him with a small silver bell from a nearby side table.

“Er. He doesn’t have one?” Bull’s suddenly startled expression did not change as she whipped her head around to give him a look that could curdle milk.

“You lot brought him all the way here,” she began patiently, her voice chilly, “From Orlais, and never bothered to give him a name?”

“Kadan, please,” Bull offered, coaxing her the short distance to forgiveness with a smile. “Like this is the worst thing I’ve done.”

He was right and she laughed, forgiving him for being himself and not realizing that calling the little (in age only) boy ‘Scamp’ wasn’t going to work forever.

So as they took turns following him, keeping him from falling into the fireplace and pulling the curtains down on his head, they talked through names, discarding nearly everything the other suggested.

“I’d like for his name to mean something,” Bull groused gently after turning down “Vincent’ as he scooped their charge up.

Echo smiled at the child’s wide yawn. He’d had a long trip and a busy afternoon exploring the library already. “Then suggest something that doesn’t mean ‘cannon’ or ‘victory’ or ‘thunderstorm.’ Does Qunlat have no word for sunlight, warmth, or peace?”

She’d meant it as a tease, he knew, but she had a point. Life for them, and for this little boy too, since it looked like he was staying, was far from ordinary. The powerful nicknames of Bull’s childhood wouldn’t work here.

“Ashkosti. He who seeks peace,” Bull offered, crossing the floor as the baby in his arms scrubbed his eyes.

“Ashkosti,” Echo tried. It fell off her tongue hard, the sound foreign, but she would learn. “I like it.”

“We can call him Ash, for short.” Bull nodded and moved to hand the newly named and very tired Ashkosti over. “Go see Tama for a minute. She’s softer for sleeping on.”

“‘Tama?’ Really?” Echo shifted her balance to hold Ash securely with an arm and a half.

Bull’s blush wasn’t something she saw often, but his cheeks flared at the question. “Well, it fits,” he insisted. “He’s not your child, and you are the boss. So.”

She kept her laugh to herself, so as not to wake the baby.


End file.
